PREVIEW: Blackhawks Face Maple Leafs

TIME: 6 p.m. CT
TV: NBCSCH | RADIO: WGN 720 AM | STREAM:
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The Blackhawks look to complete their two-game trip with a pair of wins on Saturday night as they face the Toronto Maple Leafs for the second final time this season in front of a Hockey Night in Canada audience.

TEAM RECORDS

• CHI: 10-14-2, 22 PTS
• TOR: 18-8-2, 38 PTS

HOW TO WATCH

Pat Foley and Eddie Olczyk have you covered for all the action on NBC Sports Chicago with pregame coverage beginning at 5:30 p.m., while John Wiedeman and Nick Olczyk have the radio broadcast of tonight's game on WGN Radio.

VS. TORONTO

Chicago has recorded points (8-0-4) in 12 straight games against Toronto and since the beginning of the 2003-04 campaign, the Blackhawks are 16-2-0-4 against the Maple Leafs for a .818 points percentage. In those 22 skates since 2003-04, Chicago averages over four goals per game.
The clubs met on Oct. 27 at the United Center with the Leafs winning 3-2 in overtime. Kirby Dach and Alex DeBrincat registered markers in the games. Seth Jones notched one of his three multi-assist games in the loss to Toronto.
Interim head coach Derek King played for the Maple Leafs from 1997-1999, tallying back-to-back 20-goal seasons during the 1997-98 and 1998-99 campaigns.

LANKINEN TO START

Coming off a milestone night for his partner in goal, the Blackhawks are expected to start Kevin Lankinen between the pipes on Saturday night in Toronto. Lankinen has wins in two of his four starts under Derek King (Nov. 7 vs. NSH, Nov. 26 vs. STL) and has a .900 save percentage and a 2.76 goals-against average since the coaching change, improved from a .882 SV% and 3.56 GAA in the five games before.

#FLEURY500

Marc-Andre became the third goaltender in NHL history to reach the 500-win plateau after he shutout the Canadiens on Thursday evening. He required the fewest games (901) to reach the milestone, joining Martin Brodeur (908 GP to reach 500) and Patrick Roy (933 GP to reach 500) in this exclusive club.
The Sorel, Quebec native played in his 900th career NHL game on Tuesday against the Rangers, becoming just the eighth goaltender in NHL history to reach the milestone and the only active goaltender with 900 games played. He now has 69 career shutouts, good for 14th in league history and two away from matching Lorne Chabot and Harry Lumley for 12th. Of the goaltenders in the top 14 for most shutouts in league history, seven played at least part of their career in Chicago.
Dating back to November 9 (10 appearances), Fleury is 7-3-0 and is sixth in the NHL with a .939 save percentage, fifth with a 1.87 goalsagainst average and shares second with two shutouts (min. 5 appearances).

BLUELINE HELPER

Seth Jones recorded his 20th assist of the 2021-22 campaign against the Canadiens, nearly halfway to his career mark for helpers in a third of the cames (41A in 78GP in 2017-18).
Only four different blueliners have required fewer games in a season than Jones to reach the mark with Chicago: Doug Wilson (17 GP in 1982-83 &19 GP in 1989-90), Pat Stapleton (21 GP in 1968-69 &25 GP in 1969-70), Chris Chelios (25 GP in 1990-91) and Pierre Pilote (25 GP in 1965-66 &1964-65).
Jones logged a three-game point streak (1G, 4A) from Dec. 2-5 and skated in a game-high 28:45 of ice time on Sunday evening. He has skated in 28 or more minutes in five of his last seven games, appearing in over 29 minutes in three of those contests.